1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a heating and cooling apparatus and, more particularly, to a heating and cooling apparatus for heating the inside of a room utilizing solar heat and cooling the inside of the room utilizing cool air in the ground. The present invention also relates to a building structure having the heating and cooling apparatus and to a method of using the heating and cooling apparatus.
2. Background Information
In a conventional heating and cooling apparatus utilizing solar heat, a panel is mounted on the roof of a building to heat water by heat exchange, and the heated water is utilized to heat the inside of a room in the building. Pipelines through which the hot water flows are arranged mainly under a floor made of, for example, concrete to heat or warm up the floor. Heat radiation from the surface of the floor surface is distributed by a fan or an air duct provided at an appropriate position to warm up the room.
However, in the conventional heating and cooling apparatus, since the heat is stored only in the concrete floor, the heat storage area is restricted and the heating efficiency is too low to heat the entire room. Furthermore, the structure of the conventional heating and cooling apparatus is complex since a fan or an air duct is required as described above. Additionally, since it can be used only for heating, the conventional heating and cooling apparatus is undesirable from an economical standpoint.